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A major part of a horse's diet is hay or pasture. A horse
weighing 1000 pounds will eat about 500 pounds each month. A
horse needs roughly 28 acres of non-irrigated, dryland pasture a
year if that is the only source of forage. However, a pasture
that is irrigated will grow more forage than dryland pasture,
requiring less acreage. The amount of irrigated pasture needed
for one horse is roughly 1 to 2 acres.

Two acres of pasture for each horse are recommended. One acre of
pasture will provide adequate grazing, but requires more pasture
management. Manage your pasture as you would with any crop with
soil testing, fertilizing, and managing manure. Horses will not
eat trampled grass or grass with manure on it. Horses will also
overgraze smaller areas very quickly. Therefore, a combination
of pasture and small lot or barn is needed to help minimize
overgrazing.

Do not let horses overgraze the pasture as this can cause grass
to no longer grow. Keep pasture grass healthy--overgrazed
pasture may never recover. To allow for re-growth, leave about
1/3 of the grass uneaten at any given time. The horse can be
confined to the lot or barn and only allowed to graze for a few
hours a day, reducing damage to a small pasture. Rotational
pasture lots are one key to using small acreage pasture space to
the fullest potential. Portable electric fencing provides an
efficient and economic way to partition you pasture.
Over-supplementing your horse with hay and grain will not
prevent your horse from overgrazing.

Pasture grazing is not absolutely necessary for a horse. A nice
green pasture is not always a reality. Horses can be properly
fed without pasture. However, pasture has several advantages as
it is the natural feed for horses, reduces the cost of feeding,
provides your horse with exercise, and generally speaking,
horses are usually healthier when kept outside on pasture.

Establishing and maintaining a productive pasture is not too
difficult. A few dollars spent on soil nutrients for your
pasture is a good investment. Fertilizer will help your pasture
to become more productive and produce more forage. Fertilizer
costs will generally be offset from good pasture rotating and
from savings in feed costs for hay and grain supplements.

Mowing is also important of pasture management. It minimizes the
spread of weeds to help maintain higher quality forage. Mowing
weeds before seed heads are produced limits the spread of weeds.
Grass should be mowed to 3-4 inches.

No matter how well you manage your pasture, it will most likely
thin. To help ensure pasture continues to produce good grass,
new forage seed should be spread every year. It is recommended
re-seeding be done in the spring or fall. In the spring, wet
conditions will allow for germination and growth, but only if it
is not too wet or muddy. In the fall, there will be less
competition from weeds. Grazing should not be allowed on new
grass seedlings for approximately 6 to 8 weeks after emerging
from the ground to allow for proper root growth.

Caution! Turning your horse out on green lush pasture before
conditioning him to a change in diet is dangerous and can result
in sickness or possibly death. Start your horse out slowly by
letting him graze for few minutes each day and gradually
increase to a few hours each day.

About the author:
Randall Holman, site owner of Front Range Frenzy and horse
enthusiast, is the author of this article. You will find other
easy and practical basic horse care information on his website:
 http://www.FrontRangeFrenzy.com.

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